This is a transcript of the Grace Slick interview done with Ben Fong Torres at San Francisco Book Fair on November 8, 1998, as posted to the 2400Fulton list by Diana Rae.

Unfortunately, the tape was bad on Diana's recorder for about the first ten minutes, so this interview picks up where you could hear it again. The missing first part is basically how Warner got her to do the book, choose a cowriter, the million dollar advance, etc.

Ben Fong Torres: (something about how did you choose what to write about)

Grace: I tried, I thought ... biomedical research fraud. Now, how many people are going to go buy a book on the corruption and idiocy of our current biomedical research, NIH, pharmaceutical companies and so forth? How many people would buy a book like that?

B: (Points to me holding my hand up in the audience) One.

G: That's what I'm talking about, so Warners is talking, no we don't want ... I'm going to do a chapter on that; they cut it down to about two pages. But I understand that; what they want is sex, drugs, and rock and roll, I'm not known as a biomedical researcher; they aren't going to read something by a rock and roll singer on biomedical research; so I understood that's what they wanted, and it's it's ...

B: In short, White Rabbit won over rabbit testing.

G: That's right, and they wouldn't let me put that picture in the book, either. There're some pictures in there, and I had a picture of a white rabbit, and the whole side of it had been torn away so you could see his ribs, and that's just for cosmetic testing. But since they are not like us, they use rodents, 90% of them are rodents, rodents are nocturnal, they're not like us at all, the reason why they use them is because they're easy to handle, they multiply fast, they're small. That's not science. That's just because they're easy to handle. So you know, that is not a scientific, this is supposed to be science, and that's why we're having so much trouble. They focus on symptoms, rather than pre-ven-tion ... But I can understand, everybody wants a magic bullet to take care of anything they've got going on.

B: Speaking of illustrations in the book, you who have the book in your hand will be, possibly, surprised to see the wonderful art that comes from the hand and pen of Grace Slick as well as her lyric writing and what all that she's done in the music world. Was art something that was part of your childhood, could you have pursued a career in art had you not discovered and gone into music?

G: Yeah, I tried, I wanted to be a commercial artist in the sense that I wanted to do ad copy, and I went to the Bank of America when I was about twenty, and I wanted to be an advertising illustrator. And said, you know, you guys really need to make your ads more interesting, they're so grim with the guys in the suits and all that kind of stuff, you really ought to have, like, a cartoon character or something. And they said, well people are entrusting their money to us, we don't have any cartoons, we don't want to be frivolous. OK, about a month later, they came out with, some of you are old enough to remember, that little conductor guy, and it was a cartoon character, and I thought, did they rip me off, or what? I mean, I don't know if they did, or not, I didn't suggest a conductor. But that's what I really would have liked to do. So I like to be given a proposition, in other words, we need an appliance squirrel - OK, that's cool, you've got one. So I would have liked to have done that, but I got into rock and roll first.

B: I felt the same way too, actually, as a kid in Chinatown in Oakland, especially in the late 50's and early 60's, I would have never thought I had a shot at being on the radio or even writing for newspapers and magazines; I thought about something that would be "behind the scenes", and because I read Mad Magazine, which made fun of all the advertising, this is what I would do: I would probably be drawing cartoons, and writing ad copy, same as you. Quick question, why the question mark after "Somebody to Love?", the title of the book?

G: Well, it's too cute. If I had been, like, a Christian singer, or something, maybe "Somebody to Love" ... but I mean, after you read it, if you don't know whether or not you like this person, because I'm not necessarily.. I do not do a hell of a lot of charity work, not this person, so I was the one who told Warners, if you want to call it "Somebody To Love" then put a question mark after it, leave it up to the reader.

B: There have been more question marks in response to the book, since it came out a few months ago, that you have gotten, what I would call "mixed reviews." Now, Entertainment Weekly, for example, was very positive, saying in part, that you don't, and this is a positive review, "harbor an inflated opinion of her overall importance in rock's cosmography, exhibiting a cosmic candor, that makes her book miles more appealing than the standard aging rocker's autobiography." (laughs from the audience) But the New York Times and Joel Selvin (S.F. Chronicle) were less kind, and I was wondering, how was that for you, I'm sure you were interested in what the reviewers said, about what you had put a year into, what was that like, getting mixed reviews?

G: Well I think about if I was studying, as a young kid, and I wanted to be a writer, I would be more affected by them. But I actually didn't even want to do the book, so the fact that I got a review at all was interesting. And it's the same thing with rock and roll, is that there is no bad publicity. The only bad publicity is none. So the only thing I was intrigued by, I didn't read Joel Selvin's thing, somebody just told me it was a bad review, but they said, well, he didn't think that you told enough, and that you were holding back. And I wanted to ask Joel, what parties you went to that I didn't go to, or that I was so drunk I didn't remember, 'cause I wasn't holding back. I don't know what I did, maybe I'll have Book Two, after I talk to Joel Selvin. (laughter) If I talk to Joel, and he might say, "well don't you remember when you took your clothes off and ran through the Civic Center in San Francisco, and, .." No, I don't, but I'll believe you, Joel. If we can get another book deal out of that shit, I'll do it! (laughter)

B: Joel has a photo in his wallet, you know, of that incident.... but I guess that he said, other reviewers did too, he sensed a certain distance between you and some of the musical highlights of your career. You have said in kind, that, "I don't remember a lot of the details of the sessions and how we got this one track together," and that ultimately wasn't as interesting to you as recalling other moments in your life. Does that pretty much summarize it?

G: Well it's also how big do you want the book to be? You kind of have to figure out what people want to read. Now there'll be a few people who are interested in "the oboe is not turned up loud enough, so I had to argue with Jack Casady on whether the setting should be 10 or 8, on the song "Crown of Creation", because when Marty came in.." but you know, some people are interested in that kind of stuff. I'm really not, so it didn't occur to me to put that in. Maybe some people are, but Warners didn't seem to object, and I just took my cue from them. They said, "no, we want a little bit more on ... ", and I only had about a paragraph on Woodstock, and they said, "More, because people are interested in that." Yeah, OK, I thought Monterey Pop was fabulous, Woodstock really didn't do a hell of a lot to me, but they said "people want to hear that, " because a lot either weren't there, or they were there, but they're all interested in Woodstock, why don't you put more on Woodstock. So the business of writing the little fine points of recording, it didn't occur to me, and apparently it didn't occur to Warners.

B: You know, as you said that it occurred to me that Warner Brothers distributes the "Woodstock" movie!

G: They distribute everything! Time Warner and Sony run everything.

B: They probably bought back the rights "Monterey Pop" as well!

B: Speaking of movies, will there be, do you think, a possible movie version of "Somebody to Love Question Mark?" Do you see casting various actors and actresses as members of the Jefferson Airplane and Starship?

G: Um, I don't think you can make a movie of that book, this particular book. You could probably make a movie of my life in that era, or that era with me in it, or something, but this book is written so, like these little paragraphs of sudden thoughts, it's more little snips of stuff, it's not written.. you'd have to really start all over again. So if I wanted to do it, I'd write it like a script. And I'd love to have somebody like Alanis Morrisette, and Keefer Sutherland play Kantner. And I've thought of that, I've thought of it before. So yeah, I mean, it'd be good if you got a good scriptwriter, I'm not one, I don't know anybody, but I'll try anything.

B: Morrisette... I was thinking Demi Moore....

G: Well somebody said that, and it was out of line, somebody said that Maverick, which is Madonna's company, wanted to make a movie out of it, but that they had to turn me down because I had demanded that my daughter China play the role! I haven't even talked to Maverick, let alone demand anything about China! So I don't know where that came from.

B: We began our conversation with talking about radio, a little bit because of my book, and I asked you about the roots of your musical interests, because your parents only played, like, three records on a phonograph at home, in ...

G: San Francisco! Yeah, it was a windup thing where you could change the phonograph needle, --that's - how - old - I - am! (laughter)

B: But, what about radio? Was there also, did you have a transistor radio, was there a radio in the living room, like all families had back in the fifties?

G: Yeah, but it was a really quiet house. People read a lot, I painted and read, there wasn't that much noise going on. The radio - my parents listened to Ronald Coleman in a weekly thing called "Halls of Ivy", occasionally they listened to the news, because it was during the second World War, but that's all I remember as far as noise, any kind of volume, going on. It was very quiet. Anybody see "Pleasantville?" Yeah, OK, my house was like Pleasantville. (laughter)

B: So this turned to the discovery of pop music, when it came in the form of listening to R&B radio, or top 40, or any other form, what records did you like, and when?

G: I pretty much liked them as I do now, certain semi-classical formats. Like people were listening to Elvis Presley, I was listening to Rachmaninoff. So it came in, I think, I was sort of interested in Joan Baez's lyrics. Not her voice, so much, but what she was saying, and I thought it was very interesting when you started having somewhat intelligent lyrics other than "I love you baby, why don't you love me?" and I just didn't care about that sort of stuff. Saw a girl I hadn't seen in a long time, she was the sister of my first boyfriend, yesterday at a book signing, and she, when she was thirteen, I was fifteen, she called me and said "you've got to come over here this very minute!" I went over, and there's this little blue thing, with a picture of (I didn't know him at the time) Elvis Presley, with greasy black hair, and his lip is doing this kind of thing [she imitates Elvis' lip sneer] and it was [she sings] "You ain't nothin' but a hound dog...." I thought, that is the stupidest music I've ever heard in my life. So everybody loved Elvis Presley, and I'm going back listening to Rachmaninoff. So the lyric change I think is what got to me, more than anything else.

B: You said, that your mom sang around the house, she could sing, she was a singer, and your dad too, would sometimes sing. Who was it, or what was it, if not them, that made you say, "I can do more than just hum, or just kiddingly sing along, that I can actually sing"?

G: Well you can kind of hear, well maybe you can't, I mean it depends, it's brain chemistry, a lot of it, you have no choice. Some people enjoy music but they can't make it because they're tone deaf or something.

B: Well, you have Joan Baez as a model, there you are with a superb instrument, that you can only fantasize about approaching. And of course, with a different range.

G: Well they also had a record out around that time by Nelson Riddle, who led an orchestra, pop music, [sings:] "I'll be with you in apple blossom time.." OK, everybody's going ..what?? (laughter) That's 1942 or 3, and a lot of wartime songs, and you could sing along with them, it's like he did the track, and it was four people who'd just wanna stand around and sing. And I got that thing, and I thought, yeah, I can more or less do that.

B: OK, but it would be years, years, years later before you'd...

G: Right, about ten years before it actually...

B: Right, right... Are you still surprised that people say, "Grace, I just love your singing, you're a wonderful singer," but you still will not admit that you have had, and have, a very good solid vocal instrument?

G: Well, it's not very good, I ...

B: (to the audience) See?

G: No, I use what I have well, so I've got a better brain than a vocal instrument. This machine right here (points to throat) is very limited. I have about a six-note range. I can't sing softly, I couldn't sing lullabies to China, it sounds like this: "Lullaby, and goodnight, go to sleep little baby" [she kind of croaks it, fake!] But, listen to this: [belts it out, Grace-style] "Lullaby....!" So I can sing high, loud, but I can't sing high, soft. If I do a soft song you've got to bring it down into a range. If the note moves too fast, I can't move that fast. It's really limited, this box. So I have to write songs for the box. I can hear in my head what I'd like to do, but it doesn't go there. That's kind of annoying.

B: Grace, [something]... just do "Apple Blossom Time" again, please? (laughter)

Last Updated: 02 November 2000